


Tranquility

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2018-09-22
Packaged: 2019-07-15 09:38:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16060418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: While everyone else flocks to the circus, Louisa spends some time with the other gays who are unaffected by Ydris.





	Tranquility

It was rather nice, up here in the Firgrove mountains. Lisa had definitely been right about that. Nice and quiet and peaceful. Though honestly, it would be peaceful pretty much anywhere on Jorvik at the moment, except for on Nilmer's Highland. The Ydris Thirst had struck again, causing hundreds of people to flock to his circus tent to have their fortunes told and bask in his presence.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Lisa asked again, breaking Louisa out of her thoughts of the crowds of people all fawning over the self-titled "Amazing Ydris".

"Yeah," said Louisa, glancing away from her laptop screen for a moment to look at her fiancee. She could see Rania sitting right on the edge of the cliff, a sight that definitely alarmed her a little. But Leila didn't seem to mind, merely smiling at the sight of her girlfriend.

"Dellingr will keep me safe," said Rania, her hearing as sharp as ever. "Won't you, boy?" Dellingr whickered and stepped forward to stand behind his rider, gazing out over the fields. It must be scary for a horse to be so high up, but Dellingr, oddly, didn't seem to mind.

"I guess," said Lisa. "Just, I don't even feel comfortable seeing someone sitting there even if they could see."

"Weren’t we up here on horseback a few years ago?" asked Louisa. "Or weeks, whatever?"

"Yeah but that's different," said Lisa.

"Sure it is," said Louisa, rolling her eyes and getting back to her game. "Like Rania said, she'll be fine."

"Well, I guess if anything does happen, Leila will just teleport her back up, right?" asked Lisa.

"Yeeting, the term used nowadays is yeeting," said Leila, smiling as she resumed her own game. As part of her powers, Leila could also create wifi and unlimited laptop batteries up here. She and Louisa were playing Dewdrop Dell, their favourite game (even if Lisa did sometimes claim to be jealous of the pixel woman Louisa was currently in the process of wooing).

"But yeah, if anything happens, Leila will save her," said Louisa. "Pass me a chocolate."

"Wonder how many of these Ydris is receiving," said Lisa as she held the chocolate box in her fiancee's direction.

"None, judging by his perfect waistline and clear skin," said Louisa.

"He cheats with magic," said Leila, grabbing a chocolate.

"Like you?" Lisa teased.

"Naturally," said Leila with a wink. "But I'm totally not jealous."

"Well, it's not like your girlfriend can be swayed by his dashing good looks," said Louisa.

"Gotta be into men and have eyes for that," said Rania. "And I have neither. Like with Alonso."

"Exactly," said Leila. "But your fiancee can't be swayed by Ydris either. And neither can you."

"None of us can, that's why we're here," said Louisa. They'd come up here to escape the thirsty crowd, which included a few of the other minor deities that roamed Jorvik, and hang out with a select few friends, and Dewdrop Dell had just... happened. Kirsty Griswald was playing with them, though she was on her own connection back home. In the middle of her chicken coop, judging by the photo she'd sent. Her chickens were helping her play, apparently.

"It's funny to look at, though," said Leila.

"They're all so thirsty," said Louisa, laughing. "It's hilarious."

"Says the one who was melting into a blushing puddle when she proposed to her pixel girlfriend," said Lisa.

"The offer still stands if you want to play," said Louisa. "In the new multiplayer version, you can marry your fellow farmers."

"Really?" asked Lisa. She looked thoughtful for a moment, then shook her head. "No thanks, even if that is tempting. I'm fine here with my chocolates and the nice view. Uh, no offense, Rania."

"None taken," said Rania. "Even if I can't see, I can feel the fresh air and smell it, too. Just like I can smell and hear the wolves nearby. They seem so peaceful. I guess they haven't had GED poisoning them."

"The Firgrove wolves are pretty chill," said Lisa. "It's the calming influence of the Life Warden here."

"I thought I sensed something different," said Rania. "I'd love to see one of these trees. Well, not see, but you know what I mean. Touch. Feel."

"As long as you're not a Wild Whisperer, you should be okay," said Lisa.

"As much as I love the idea of being able to see the connection between horse and rider, I think I'm good just being the hero of my own town," said Rania.

"It's safer that way," said Leila. "Trust me."

"Yeah," said Lisa, a shadow passing over her eyes. "It is." Louisa reached across and took her fiancee's hand, squeezing it.

"It'll be okay," said Louisa. "We'll get her back." And now she felt jealous, all over again, at the reminder that Anne and Lisa had had something. Once, long ago, but there was always that nagging fear that old feelings would resurface and then it would not only ruin her relationship but ruin the group and...

"Let's check in on the circus tent, shall we?" asked Leila, possibly sensing the sudden change in mood. "We could do with some entertainment."

"Should we bring popcorn?" asked Lisa with a laugh as she prepared to be 'yeeted', climbing onto Starshine.

"Oh, don't worry, I'm not taking us there," said Leila. "Just showing." She held out her hand, which glowed with energy, and suddenly, a scene appeared, showing the chaos that was Nilmer's Highland.

There were horses and people everywhere. A group of people stood in front of Ydris, snapping selfies, while some of them growled and snapped that he was theirs. Most, if not all, of them were blushing.

"I kind of feel bad about the people who Ydris is actually dating," said Louisa. "Y'know, in the different timelines and whatnot. They all have to share him now."

"At least I only have to share my love with one other person," said Leila, smiling in the direction of Leila. "Well, that I know of, anyway."

"And nobody else is after Lisa," said Louisa, squeezing her fiancee's hand. "Which makes absolutely no sense, I mean, just look at her!"

"Thanks," said Lisa, grinning.

"And then there's Alex," said Leila. "Eventually, everyone will be gay for her."

"Just like everyone's straight for Ydris, apparently," Louisa muttered. "Or gay or whatever."

"Same thing," said Leila with a shrug.

"I don't know why people would willingly go through that," said Louisa, seeing all of the golden horses running around. There seemed to be a few Pandorian horses, too, and horses coloured like Nightdust, and the horse that Galloper Thompson rode, and even some horses that looked for all the world like they should be swimming in the ocean.

"Especially after you said it hurt so much," said Lisa.

"And then there's the fortune telling," said Louisa with a shiver. She wrapped her arms around herself, leaving her laptop sitting on the stone ground. "The minute I felt him in my mind, I just- ran."

"I wouldn't want him anywhere near me, let alone in my mind," said Leila. "He is interesting, though."

"Well, yeah, and I hope he can tell us more one day," said Louisa. "It just sometimes feels like me being gay and engaged means nothing to him. Like a certain other tall, interesting guy I could mention."

"Darko?" asked Leila, confused.

"No, not him," said Louisa. "Scott, the only decent Buttergood."

"Oh," said Leila. "Yeah, sometimes I forget that people exist."

"Don't worry," said Louisa with a laugh. "Sometimes I forget that Ricky Winterwell exists, and I used to live in New Hillcrest."

"Well, Jarlaheim, but same thing," said Lisa.

"I'm glad Herman's home now," said Louisa. "Even if him coming home did raise so many more questions."

"All questions that will be answered in due time," said Leila with a secretive smile and wink.

"I wish you could tell us things," said Louisa. "But you did tell us about Rania's new mama."

"I told you about her first," said Rania, coming over to join them. Lisa looked relieved to have Rania away from the cliff's edge. Dellingr looked relieved too, standing between them and the dangerous drop.

"Yeah, I know, but I thought it was just me reading too much into things. Again," said Louisa. "It's always a struggle with us gays."

"Tell me about it," said Lisa. "You didn't even realise our first date was a date until I told you that I asked Alex for her blessing."

"Yeah, I was a bit of an idiot," said Louisa, blushing.

"And then there's me, thinking that Rania was just being overly friendly," said Leila.

"I grabbed your hands and sniffed your fingers," said Rania. "I honestly expected you to push me away or call me a freak or something."

"Oh, Rania, I'd never do that," said Leila, taking her girlfriend's hands in her own. "You can sniff my hands anytime." Rania laughed, then brought Leila's hands up to her face to kiss them.

"Oh, is that what you wanted to do?" asked Louisa, grinning as Leila blushed.

"Yes, but that might've been too forward," said Rania with a cheeky grin. "More forward than grabbing her hands and sniffing them, I mean."

"I never pegged you for the romantic type," said Louisa.

"Well, I certainly didn't inherit it from my mama," said Rania. "The way I heard it, the doc made the first move when she took my mama out to celebrate her winning the election. I was jealous until mama explained to me why it was just the two of them."

"And are you sure that you had nothing to do with them getting together?" asked Leila. "You are their biggest supporter, after all."

"No, of course not," said Rania, her cheeks darkening slightly with a blush as she turned her head away. "Well, I mean, okay, maybe I did give them a little push but it was just so obvious right from the start! There we were, surrounded by wolves, the doc was crying in fear, and then my mama just swooped in and rescued us and chased those wolves off. And then she offered the doc a place to stay. How could it not be love at first sight?"

"Again, romantic type," said Louisa. "I agree, though. I got that vibe too."

"Right?" said Rania. "As first meet stories go, that was... the cutest." She grinned.

"Well, I first met my future wife when I rescued her from Dark Riders," said Lisa. "After she rescued me from Pandoria with the help of Starshine and a Life Warden."

"My mama's was still better," said Rania.

"Of course it was," said Leila, wrapping her arm around her girlfriend. She reached over and typed a message into the chatbox, then saved her game and logged out. Shutting her laptop, she pulled Rania into her arms for cuddle time.

"It's about that time of day, isn't it?" said Louisa, doing the same with her game. Kirsty seemed disappointed but said that she guessed she had to go do real farm chores, anyway. Louisa giggled at the message before exiting out of the game and holding her arms out so that Lisa could pull her into them.

"We couldn't just meet the loves of our lives through normal means, could we?" asked Lisa. "Like, through friends or mutual acquaintances or at work or a bar or wherever."

"This is Jorvik, of course we couldn't," said Louisa. "It had to be something extra, something dramatic."

"Something magical," said Leila, stroking the soft fur of Rania's stole (it was faux fur, of course, Rania loved animals too much to hurt them. It was all about the aesthetic).

"Yeah," said Rania. "I might only just be learning about it, but magic seems... really cool."

"In some cases, yes," said Leila, watching the scenes of chaos at Nilmer's. "And other times... well, sometimes it's nice to be normal and do something normal. Go to the movies, go to the park, just cuddle with your girlfriend or fiancee on top of a mountain."

"Normal is good," said Louisa, leaning against her fiancee. "Especially since magic can be scary sometimes."

"Exhibit A," said Lisa, gesturing to the chaos. "But hey, now that the laptops are away, let's just... enjoy the tranquility."

And, once Leila had closed the portal, they did. All they could hear now were the wolves, the wind, the birds, and the faint crashing of waves coming from the coast. It was very, very nice.


End file.
